Getting a handle on SNMP may seem
like a daunting task. The RFCs provide the official definition of the
protocol, but they were written for software developers, not network
administrators, so it can be difficult to extract the information you
need from them. Fortunately, many online resources are available. The
most notable web site is the Network Management Server at the
University at Buffalo (http://netman.cit.buffalo.edu). It contains
useful links to other sites that provide similar information, as well
as a network-management product list (http://netman.cit.buffalo.edu/Products.html)
that includes both software and hardware vendors; it even has product
reviews. This site is a great starting point in the search for
network-management information and can be an extremely useful tool
for determining what kinds of hardware and software are currently out
there. Two more great web sites are the SimpleWeb (http://www.snmp.cs.utwente.nl) and SNMP Link
(http://www.SNMPLink.org).
The Simple Times, an online publication devoted
to SNMP and network management, is also useful. You can find the
current edition, and all the previous ones, at http://www.simple-times.org.
Another
great resource is Usenet news. The newsgroup most people frequent is
comp.dcom.net-management. Another good newsgroup
is comp.protocols.snmp. Groups such as these
promote a community of information sharing, allowing seasoned
professionals to interact with individuals who are not as
knowledgeable about SNMP or network management.
If you would
like to know if a particular vendor has SNMP-compatible equipment,
the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
has compiled a list of the proprietary MIB files various vendors
supply. The list can be found at ftp://ftp.iana.org/mib/. There is also an
SNMP FAQ, available in two parts at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/snmp-faq/part1/ and
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/snmp-faq/part2/.
